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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23149642">Compromise</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/frumplebump/pseuds/frumplebump'>frumplebump</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime &amp; Manga)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Canon - Manga, Gen, One Shot, Slice of Life, tendershipping if you're into that but you gotta squint</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-03-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-03-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 10:48:52</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,906</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23149642</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/frumplebump/pseuds/frumplebump</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Just Ryou trying to make it through an average evening of chores and homework, with no help from the restless spirit living in his head. (Set sometime between Duelist Kingdom and Battle City.)</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Bakura Ryou &amp; Yami Bakura</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>36</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Compromise</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Ryou sighed and prodded his fingers into the back of his neck. He was stiff from sitting hunched over and his eyesight was starting to get blurry. He straightened, snapping a few kinks out of his spine, and then settled back down to finish sewing the last two buttons onto his jacket. </p><p>At some point during the last class period of the day, he’d spaced out, and the spirit had evidently taken advantage of that lapse. Ryou came to again standing in the street an hour after school let out, with his hands clenched painfully into fists, and his uniform jacket flapping open. All the buttons were gone, leaving just their tattered threads fluttering. Ryou groaned, hoping that no one had been watching when the spirit decided to bust out of his clothing like a maniac.</p><p>With an hour of his evening already lost to god-knows-what, he made a detour on the way home to pick up some replacement buttons at a store that sold sewing supplies. It wasn’t the first time he’d had to run this errand, so he bought two extra packets of the buttons. Now he was wasting his time putting his clothing back together when what he really needed to be doing was his homework.</p><p>“Do you have to keep doing this?” Ryou grumbled as he rethreaded his needle.</p><p>
  <em> Do you have to keep swaddling me in those horrible jackets? </em>
</p><p>“It’s my uniform, so yes. I do.”</p><p>
  <em> Jounouchi and Honda don’t wear theirs buttoned up to the chin. </em>
</p><p>Ryou pursed his lips as he considered this. “Well, they’re Jounouchi and Honda. They can get away with it. I can’t pull that off.”</p><p>
  <em> You could. You should try. </em>
</p><p>“Maybe you should try not destroying my things whenever they aren’t exactly to your liking. Or, you know, how about not stealing my body when I’m just trying to get through a school day?”</p><p><em> I got bored</em>.</p><p>Ryou frowned a little. “You have seemed more restless lately.”</p><p>The spirit gave a hum, which Ryou felt more than heard as it shivered across his brain. <em> Things are in motion. The next stage begins soon. </em></p><p>“Very profound,” Ryou said, rolling his eyes. Then he hissed at the sharp jab of the needle stabbing into his fingertip. “Did you just—”</p><p><em> That was all you, host. But here… </em> Ryou’s fingertip went cold, then numb, as sensation drained from it. <em> Better? </em></p><p>“It’s weird,” Ryou said. “I can’t sew like this.”</p><p><em> Tch. There’s no pleasing you</em>.</p><p>“Getting pricked with a sewing needle is orders of magnitude less painful than being stabbed through the hand, but where was your creepy first aid then?”</p><p>
  <em> That was then. Now I’m reformed. </em>
</p><p>Ryou snorted. “Sure you are.” He felt a tingling across his scalp, nothing like a human touch, but he’d come to interpret that sensation as the spirit ruffling its incorporeal fingers into Ryou’s hair. It wasn’t entirely unpleasant.</p><p>Ryou tied off and cut the thread, then started on the last button. “If you destroy one of my jackets again, I’m going to start leaving the Ring at home when I go to school.”</p><p>The spirit chuckled. <em> We both know you’re scared to leave the house without it. </em></p><p>“I’ll manage somehow.”</p><p>Ryou could feel the spirit’s amusement, but it kept silent as Ryou finished with the final button. </p><p>Ryou stood up and tried to shake the wrinkles out of the jacket, then walked to the mirror on the back of his door. He couldn’t exactly see the spirit in the reflection—it was more of a shadowy blur over his shoulder that vanished when he tried to look directly at it. Still, he was aware of it as he put the jacket on, deliberately fastening each button, all the way up to the collar.</p><p>Ryou could feel more than see the spirit’s sneer. <em> Well, I hate it, but there’s a half-dozen silly girls ready to fall at your feet every day, so what do I know? </em></p><p>Ryou watched the flush rise to his cheeks in his reflection. “About that,” he said. “Promise me you’ll never, you know, take advantage of them.”</p><p>
  <em> Why? Saving yourself for some special fellow, are you? </em>
</p><p>“What? No! That’s isn’t—that’s not how I meant—ugh.” Ryou shook his head as if he could dislodge the spirit and its insinuations. “I mean, don’t hurt them. For their sake.”</p><p>
  <em> Why would I hurt them? </em>
</p><p>“Because they’re there. Because it would be easy. Because you’d probably think it was fun.”</p><p>The spirit’s chuckle rippled through Ryou’s nerves.<em> You really think so little of me. Don’t worry, host, I’m even less interested in your fan club than you are, if that’s possible. </em></p><p>Ryou felt the spirit demanding the use of his hand, the nerves starting to tingle and turn off like his hand was falling asleep. With a sigh, he ceded control, and watched his hand lift up to his throat. The spirit used Ryou’s fingers to unfasten the top three buttons of the jacket. <em> Compromise? </em>it offered.</p><p>Ryou shrugged. The jacket did feel a little less constricting this way, and if it spared him more mending sessions… “Yeah, we’ll see.” He used the hand still under his own control to finish unbuttoning the rest of the buttons, then awkwardly shrugged himself out of the jacket. “Do you mind?” he asked, looking at his limp hand. “I still have homework to do.”</p><p>The spirit used their hand to reach up and give a hank of Ryou’s hair a playful tug before turning control back to its host. Ryou grunted in annoyance as he untangled his fingers.</p><p>The mending project had taken the better part of an hour, and Ryou wasn’t looking forward to starting a few more hours of homework. With a heavy sigh, he dragged a textbook out of his backpack and plopped down in his desk chair. He had barely managed to flip to the correct chapter before the spirit murmured again inside his ears.</p><p><em> You know, if you wanted my help with somebody you </em> were <em> interested in… </em></p><p>Ryou frowned, staring at his textbook as if ignoring the spirit was actually an option.</p><p>
  <em> Don’t you think Yugi would be happy to spend some time with you—just you—if only you weren’t too shy to ask? I could take over and invite him to— </em>
</p><p>“Ha!” Ryou interrupted. “Nice try.”</p><p><em> You’re blushing</em>.</p><p>“I am not.” He felt a chilly tickle on his cheek as the spirit pretended to caress him, and shook his head reflexively. “I’m just offended that you thought I might fall for something so blatant.” </p><p>
  <em> Landlord, I only want to help you. </em>
</p><p>“I think you want to hurt Yugi.”</p><p>
  <em> I don’t want any harm to come to Yugi. I told you, I’m reformed. </em>
</p><p>Ryou’s eyes rested on the scar marring the back of his left hand. “Why should I believe that?”</p><p>
  <em> Haven’t I proven myself? Duelist Kingdom, the Black Crown game store?  </em>
</p><p>Ryou pursed his lips. “I don’t understand anything you do, but I have a hard time imagining you were simply being altruistic.”</p><p>The spirit chuckled. <em> You may be smarter than you look, dear host.  </em></p><p>“Thanks,” Ryou huffed. “Now, seriously, could you leave me alone? You’ve already wasted enough of my time today. I just want to finish my homework and go to bed.”</p><p>The tines of the Ring quivered against Ryou’s chest, dancing against the faded marks of healed entry wounds. Ryou stiffened, then let out his breath in a quiet, controlled exhale. “I’ll take it off,” he said.</p><p>The knife-sharp points pressed against Ryou’s skin. <em> Just try it</em>. </p><p>Ryou had no doubt that the instant he reached for the Ring, its tines would plunge into his torso. He released another steady sigh, blinked slowly, and gazed down at his textbook again.</p><p>The spirit rumbled; the sensation was like touching a purring cat, but nowhere near as calming. <em> You’re braver than you look, too</em>.</p><p>For a moment the spirit pulled away, easing back like a receding wave. Ryou tried to focus on his reading, but the words slipped and skittered. By the time he could string them together into coherent sentences, the spirit was pushing against the backs of his eyes and buzzing in the roots of his teeth. He could feel the spirit’s boredom and impatience swirling in him, amplifying his own restlessness. At least one of them needed a distraction.</p><p>“Look,” Ryou sighed, pulling a pad of unlined paper out of his desk drawer. “I can’t concentrate on anything like this, so—” He held out his right hand, as if waiting for a handshake. “Have fun.”</p><p>The spirit seized control again without comment, but pulsed a tiny thrum of satisfaction. Ryou tried to ignore the sight of his right hand moving on its own. This wasn’t an ideal way to do his schoolwork, but it was better than having the spirit doing loop-de-loops in his brain while he tried to focus. And the results were usually interesting.</p><p>The spirit’s uncanny talent for drawing fascinated Ryou, but it also irritated him a little; it didn’t seem fair that the spirit could use Ryou’s own hand to do something better than Ryou himself could. The spirit’s sketches were fluid and effortless, never quite finished but always legible. It favored drawing grotesque creatures with a vaguely Duel Monsters flair; it also seemed to enjoy drawing horses, which Ryou found startlingly charming. It almost never drew human faces, and when it did, the subject was usually Ryou, or someone who looked enough like him that Ryou figured that was how the spirit saw their shared face.</p><p>Ryou was vaguely aware of his arm moving as the spirit kept itself entertained, but concentrated on his reading until he’d managed to struggle his way to the end of the assigned chapter. Then, as a reward, he let himself peek at what the spirit had been drawing.</p><p>There was a horse, as usual, and a few studies of disembodied wings with varying numbers of evil-looking talons, but what the spirit apparently spent the most time on was a sketch of a human figure. The man wore a waist wrap and long open robes; where his face should have been, there was just a shadowy outline of a head, but the muscles of his chest and abs were shaded in with loving detail.</p><p>“What’s this?” Ryou said. “A fashion suggestion? Or some fantasy of yours?”</p><p>The spirit hummed. <em> Bit of a self-portrait. </em></p><p>“Seriously?” Ryou used his left hand to pull the paper closer for a better look.</p><p>
  <em> Not what you were expecting? </em>
</p><p>“I guess I would have imagined something with more… horns.” Ryou gazed at the sketch, chewing his lip. “So you really were human.”</p><p>He felt the spirit grow agitated, and watched as it used his right hand to tug the paper farther away.</p><p>”Are you remembering more?” Ryou asked. “About your past?”</p><p>The spirit hesitated a moment before snarling, <em> What do you care? </em>Before Ryou could move, his right hand clenched, crumpling the piece of paper into a ball.</p><p>Ryou sighed. “I wish you wouldn’t destroy all your drawings. They’re so good.”</p><p>
  <em> I’m not doing them for your entertainment, host. </em>
</p><p>“Fine. Sorry I said anything.”</p><p>He felt his right hand tingle as the spirit withdrew, crawling into the unreachable places beyond their shared mind. Ryou’s shoulders dropped in a resigned shrug, and he tried to focus on plowing through the rest of his homework before the spirit came slithering back.</p><p>A while later, Ryou was interrupted from his math assignment by his stomach growling fiercely. He checked the time, startled to realize that it was after 8:00 and he’d forgotten to eat dinner. He took his notebook into the kitchen to finish the last equation.</p><p>All of the lights in the apartment were off, of course, and the tiled floor felt cold even through his slippers. Ryou opened the fridge to gaze at the three-day-old leftover noodles that would serve as his dinner. As the container rotated in the microwave, he pencilled in the solution to his last math problem, leaving him without even his homework for company or entertainment.</p><p>Like a shark sensing chum, the spirit came swirling forth to taste Ryou’s self-pity. <em> Sickening</em>, it said. <em> And here I am offering you my company, offering to bring your friends to you— </em></p><p>“You can piss off,” Ryou muttered.</p><p><em> Such shocking language</em>, the spirit said, with an eye roll that Ryou could almost feel. <em> What have I done to deserve this abuse? </em></p><p>“What have you <em> done </em> ?” Ryou sucked in a breath. “It’s <em> your </em> fault that I’m al—” He bit back his words, unclenched his fists, and took the container of noodles out of the microwave. “I’m not doing this,” he said, with what felt like a reasonable attempt at calm.</p><p>He felt the spirit watching with sour disgust as he poked at the gelatinous noodles. <em> Well, we’re sure as hell not doing that, either</em>.</p><p>“What do you—” Caught off-guard, Ryou didn’t have time to put up his defenses before the spirit pressed into him, chilling him from the marrow out. Everything went dark, like sleep coming on far too quickly, and the last thing he heard was his own weary sigh.</p><p> </p><p>Ryou opened his eyes to the orange glow of a street lamp. He had a warm, stretched feeling in his chest, like his lungs were recovering from a few laps around the track at school. When he moved his legs experimentally—realizing as he did that he was sitting on a park bench—a cramp zapped through his calf muscle. “What were you…” he murmured under his breath. His hands were full of something, and he was almost afraid to look down, but a tentative squeeze suggested he was holding nothing more alarming than a flimsy cardboard box.</p><p>He glanced down and recognized the blue and yellow logo of the store that sold cream puffs out of a little booth at the train station. A tiny laugh huffed out of him as he lifted the lid to see a half-dozen cream puffs nestled inside. “Did you steal these?”</p><p>The spirit scoffed. <em> Sure, stole them right out of the case and then stole a box, and one of their stupid seals too, just for good measure. </em></p><p>“Okay, okay.” Ryou glanced around to see if anyone was observing his conversation with himself, but the park seemed deserted. He checked his watch - a little after 9:15. He’d lost barely any time. The cream puff shop was open fairly late, he recalled, but he was pretty sure it closed at 9.</p><p>“Did you really run us down there just to get cream puffs?” Ryou laughed. “Is that why I feel like I’ve been doing laps?”</p><p>
  <em> If you kept this body in better shape it wouldn’t be an issue. </em>
</p><p>“And the cream puffs are really helping with that.” Ryou lifted one of the pastries out of the box and inspected it. That store wasn’t the best, in his opinion, but their draw was that you could get the pastry shells filled with any flavor of cream you wanted. Rummaging through the box, though, it looked like the spirit had opted for all vanilla.</p><p><em> They were about to close! </em> the spirit groused. <em> They almost wouldn’t serve me at all— </em></p><p>“It’s fine,” Ryou said. His voice caught and shook on a giggle that he was trying to hold back, not that that kind of effort ever worked for him. Thinking of the spirit piloting his body, out of breath and sweating, up to that kiosk in the station and demanding cream puffs, then making the world’s most boring snap decision when faced with too many choices and not enough time—</p><p><em> Oh for fuck’s sake, it wasn’t like </em> that<em>. </em></p><p>“It’s okay,” Ryou said. He couldn’t hold back the laughter anymore. Dropping the cream puff back in the box, he used both hands to cover his mouth, because even if no one was near him, he didn’t want to be overheard giggling like a maniac on a bench by himself. </p><p><em> This is the thanks I get</em>, the spirit grumbled. </p><p>The laughter wasn’t stopping, and as Ryou doubled over the box, hiccuping on his giggles, he was starting to forget what was so funny in the first place. His sides were starting to ache and he dimly wondered if this was hysteria coming to pay him one of its occasional visits.</p><p><em> Get a hold of yourself, host</em>.</p><p>He nodded, hauled in a deep breath, and let it sigh back out, his mouth still quivering with the urge to grin. When he squeezed his eyes shut and opened them again, he felt tears dampening the edges of his lids. “Thank you,” he said.</p><p>
  <em> Eat your damn cream puffs. </em>
</p><p>Ryou nodded and picked one up again. The pastry was a little stale but the filling burst sweet and chilled behind his teeth. <em> It’s good</em>, he thought, his mouth too full to speak.</p><p><em> If you say so</em>.</p><p>“You eat the next one,” Ryou offered, after he’d swallowed.</p><p>
  <em> No. I got them for you. </em>
</p><p>“To keep me complacent?” Ryou picked up another cream puff and licked the filling threatening to ooze onto his fingers. “Or is this supposed to be an apology?”</p><p><em> Call it whatever you’d like. You’re easier to manage when you’re content</em>.</p><p>Ryou rolled his eyes. “Might be the kindest thing you’ve ever said to me.”</p><p>He felt the spirit’s smirk like a teasing tug on his mind. <em> You’re welcome, yadonushi. </em></p>
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